CPR Member Scholar Holly Doremus, joined by Member Scholars Rob Glicksman (also a CPR Board Member), Alex Camacho and Dan Rohlf, along with myself, today sent the Secretaries of the Departments of Commerce and Interior a letter urging them to utilize the time-limited authority that Congress gave them to withdraw one of the more controversial midnight regulations issued by the Bush Administration. Those regulations undercut one of the Endangered Species Act's (ESA) most important protections -- a requirement that federal agencies consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and/or the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to be sure that actions they plan to take (for example, funding a new highway) are not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of threatened and endangered species. Full text

More than 10,000 oil and gas wells puncture the land within Pennsylvania's half-million acre Allegheny National Forest (ANF) -- more than in all the other national forests combined, according to the non-profit Allegheny Defense Project. Environmental impacts of the drilling include land disturbance from construction of roads, pipelines and wellpads. Environmental groups like the Sierra Club are concerned that these land disturbances are further fragmenting wildlife habitat within the ANF. They also contend that drilling and associated road-building contribute to increased erosion and water pollution, and that noise caused by the drilling spoils visitors' experience.
Energy extraction in the national forests is allowed because of the multiple-use concept that the Forest Service (FS) is required by law to observe in its management of the national forests. So what's unusual about what's going on in the Allegheny National Forest? Critical analyses required by federal law that would normally inform the FS's balancing of the uses at stake are being omitted. Full text

Center for Progressive Reform Policy Analyst Margaret Clune Giblin blogs on the funding included for the Park Service in the economic stimulus package -- and why it's good not only for the National Park System, but also the economy. Full text

Center for Progressive Reform Policy Analyst Margaret Giblin blogs on the need for information collection and planning to better manage water supplies in the face of climate change, and the Secure Water provisions of S.22, the Omnibus Public Lands bill, which would advance these goals. Full text

Center for Progressive Reform Policy Analyst Margaret Clune Giblin blogs on President Bush's designation of marine monuments, and other marine protection issues on which the Administration's record is less impressive. Full text